Referral – Wedding at the Tempe Center for the Arts

The ultimate compliment is getting a referral from a former client, especially when that client is present for the both events. This just happened recently when we played a wedding where we were referred by a couple whose wedding and cocktail hour we played for last year.

The couple we played for last year held their wedding on the rooftop of the Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix. It was a hot and windy day and following that wedding, we had a second wedding to play at Sassi Scottsdale, so it was a full day.

We were delighted to get an email from a bride about six months ago saying that she was referred by our former clients. Their wedding was held on a late Saturday afternoon at the Tempe Center for the Arts outdoors on the north patio. While it was a very warm day, it was surprisingly cooler on the patio.

When we arrived, there was a huge crowd in the lobby getting ready to see a Childsplay Theater Company performance. The staff at the Tempe Center for the Arts was very nice and prepared though. They had the wedding ceremony site all set up with chairs and the sound system and even a spot with chairs and music stands for us! It was a smaller area than we expected but since we only brought our larger Bose sound system, we set that up instead of our smaller amplifier. As we were setting up, we noticed that one of our photographer friends, Kevin Wolfson, was photographing the wedding, so that was fun to get to be on a wedding with him.

About half an our before the ceremony started, we began playing classical music to set a romantic mood for the wedding. Some guests sat inside the open doors to listen and some gathered outside in their seats for the wedding ceremony. At one point, there was a young lady all dressed up, perhaps for her quinceañera, who was posing for pictures on the Tempe Town Lake walkway that the ceremony was looking out on, so it was fun seeing her.

Before we knew it, it was time for the ceremony to start. The aisle for the processional wasn’t very long, but the flower girl and bridesmaids walked nice and slowly, so we were able to play a good amount of the song the bride chose for their processional – A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. Next, the bride entered with her father to a song that we arranged especially for her – 18th Floor Balcony by Blue October.

The ceremony was quite emotional for the couple and was performed by a judge as onlookers walking down the path along Tempe Town Lake looked on. There was even a bride and her bridesmaids out taking pictures in the background during part of the ceremony which was kind of ironic. There was no unity ceremony or sand ceremony, so we didn’t get to play again until the end of the wedding ceremony.

Once the couple was announced as man and wife, they did their recessional to the most famous and traditional wedding recessional music around, Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.

Following the wedding ceremony, the couple requested that we perform romantic contemporary music as they got pictures taken and their guests enjoyed drinks. The bar of the Tempe Center for the Arts was open, so guests got drinks inside and then came outdoors to the patio again to listen to the music. We played lots of our favorite romantic songs including And I Love Her by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, The Nearness of You by Hoagy Charmichael and Ned Washington, Some Day My Prince Will Come by Frank Churchhill and Larry Morey and many more.

After the couple finished their photos, the guests departed for the reception which was to be held at a home in Tempe. As always, we had a lot of fun playing for this couple and their guests, and we’re so thankful to our former clients for this referral.